Holder for individual towels.



E. M. MIKKELSEN. HOLDER FOR INDIVIDUAL TOWELS.

APPLICATION FILED MAR.. 19. l9l3.

LQUKQYL Patented Dec. 12, 1916.

g y 4 0? W will EDWARD M. MIKKELSEN, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

HOLDER FOR INDIVIDUAL TOWELS.

moron.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 12, 1916.

Application filed March 19, 1913. Serial No. 755,410.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, EDWARD M. MIKKEL- SEN, acitizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, county of Cook, Stateof Illinois, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement inHolders for Individual Towels, and declare the following to be a full,clear, and exact description of the same, such as will enable othersskilled in the art to which it pertains to make and use the same,reference being had to the accompanying drawings, which form a part ofthis specification.

My invention has for its object to produce a simple and novelarrangement for holding a number of individual towels and keeping theclean towels separated from the soiled towels.

Considered in one of its aspects, my invention may be said to have forits object to produce a simple and novel attachment for ordinary towelcabinets which will permit such cabinets to be used successfully to holda comparatively large number of individual towels, keeping the cleantowels separated from the soiled towels.

Further objects of my invention will appear from the following detaileddescription taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, wherein:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a common type of towel cabinet havingmy attachment applied thereto, the door of the cabinet being open; Fig.2 is a view on an enlarged scale of the upper end of the towelsupportingrod in the cabinet and the connection between it and the flexible towelguide; Fig. 3 is a cross section through the bottom of the cabinet atthe lower end of the towel-supporting rod; and Fig. l is a horizontalsection taken just above the bottom of the cabinet at the right handside of Fig. 1.

Referring to the drawing, 1 represents a towel cabinet of any usual orpreferred construction having a door, 2.

In accordance with one feature of my invention I provide a suitablebasket, 3, for soiled towels and arrange it so that it may be hungbeneath the cabinet. I prefer to make the basket of simple strips whichmay be shipped unassembled and be assembled by the purchaser, althoughthis is not essential. The basket may conveniently be supported from thecabinet by providing it with suitable wire hangers or bails, 4, whichmay be slipped over projecting pins or screws, 5, on the sides of thecabinet and near the lower ends thereof; the basket being preferably ofabout the same width as the cabinet so that the bails or hangers assumevertical positions and carry the vertical lines of the sides of thecabinet down through the basket.

Within the cabinet, at one side, and approximately halfway between thefront and the back, I arrange a vertical rod, 6. The rod mayconveniently be supported as illustrated in Fig. 3, having a shoulder, 7near its lower end and having the extreme end screw threaded; the screwthreaded portion of the rod extending through the bottom wall 8 of thecabinet and having thereon a suitable thumb nut, 9. The upper end of therod is bent forwardly along a gradual curve as indicated at 10 and tothe extreme end thereof is attached a long chain or other flexiblemember, 11; the connection between the rod and the flexible member beingconveniently made by means of a snap hook, 12. On the other end of theflexible member is a stop, 13, which may conveniently be in the form ofa washer.

The individual towels are made small enough to lie flat in the cabinet,piled one on top of the other as indicated at 14:. Each towel has nearone end a suitable eyelet, 15, large enough to slip along the rod 6 andover the upper end thereof.

In using my device, a series of towels is threaded upon the rod 6 untila pile the desired height is reached, and the flexible member isattached to the upper end of the rod. The flexible member is long enoughto extend down into the basket. When it is desired to use a towel, theuppermost'towel in the cabinet is lifted up and slid along the rod, thecurved upper end of the rod guiding it forwardly and allowing it toslide freely upon the flexible member. The flexible member permits thetowel to be freely used as the towel is not held in any fixed position.When the user is through with the towel he simply drops it and it fallsdown into the basket. The washer on the lower end of the flexible memberprevents the towels from slipping ofl'. When the towel collector callshe can either detach the rod and take it together with the flexiblemember away with the towels strung upon the flexible member, or he mayunfasten the flexible member from the rod and attach the snap hook tothe washer 13 so as to convert the flexible member into a closed loop onwhich the towels are held and by which they may be carried to thelaundry without danger of becoming scattered and some of them lost. Or,if desired, the soiled towels may simply be removed and carried away inloose bulk, both the rod and the flexible member being left in place toreceive a new supply of towels. If desired, the free end of the flexiblemember may be fastened as illustrated in Fig. 3, the thumb nut 9 being I'7 removed from the lower end of the rod 6 and the washer 13 beingslipped upon the rod before the nut is replaced.

The rod holds one end of the clean towels in the cabinetagainstdisplacement in the forward direction so as to interfere with theclosing of the door, but the towels are freeto enough to engage with thefront edge of a pile of towels in-the' cabinet and high enough to extendto the top of the highest pile of towels which it may be desired torotatably fixed in said bore, a retaining 40 member flexibly .secured atone end to the assemblmg member, and means for detachably securing thefree end of the retaining memberto the socket end of the assemblingmember.

2. In a towel holder or the like, the combination with a supportingmember provided with a bore, a rod arranged upon said member andprojecting at its base through said bore, a flexible retaining membersecured at one end'to the outer end of the rod, and means for detachablysecuring the other end of the retaining member to the inner end of therod.

In testimony whereof, I sign this specification in the presence of twowitnesses.

EDWARD M. MIKKELSEN. Witnesses:

WM. F. FREUDENREIGH, RUTH E. ZETTERVALL.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents, Washington, I). G.

